Jerry Lewis, the slapstick-loving comedian, innovative filmmaker and generous fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, died Sunday after a brief illness, said his publicist, Candi Cazau. He was 91.
Cazau would not elaborate on the illness from which Lewis was suffering.

Lewis first gained fame for his frenzied comedy-and-music act with singer Dean Martin. When that ended in the mid-1950s, Lewis went solo, and by the early ’60s, he had become a top draw in movies such as “The Bellboy,” “The Nutty Professor” and “The Patsy.” Along the way, he pioneered the use of videotape and closed-circuit monitors in moviemaking, a now-standard technique called video assist.

He first helped raise money for muscular dystrophy in a telethon in 1956. He was so successful, and so devoted to the cause, that children affected by the disease became known as “Jerry’s kids.” The telethon, long known as “The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon,” began airing on Labor Day weekend in 1966, and Lewis served as host until 2011. Celebs who co-hosted and performed with Lewis included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joan Crawford, John Lennon and Yoko Ono,’ to name a few.

His performances earned him not one, but two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for TV and one for film, and a lifetime achievement award in 2009 by the Academy of of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

He is survived by his second wife, SanDee Pitnick and their adopted daughter.

Dick Gregory, pioneering US comedian and activist, dies aged 84. Gregory’s son, Christian, said his father died late on Saturday in Washington, DC after having been hospitalised for about a week. He had suffered a severe bacterial infection. He is survived by his wife, Lillian, and 10 children.

In a varied career,Gregory briefly sought political office for mayor of Chicago in 1966 and US president in 1968, when he got 200,000 votes as the Peace and Freedom party candidate.

In the late 60s, he befriended JohnLennon and was among the voices heard on Lennon’s anti-war anthem Give Peace a Chance, recorded in the Montreal hotel room where Lennon and Yoko Ono were staging a “bed-in” for peace.

An admirer of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, Gregory embraced nonviolence and became a vegetarian and marathon runner.

US network PBS will begin airing the new 10-part series, The Vietnam War, directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick on 17 September 2017 and two companion soundtracks are to be released by UMe to accompany the visuals.

The Vietnam War: Original Score By Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, will feature over 90 minutes of new, original music on 2CD and 3LP, written and recorded by Academy Award-winning composers (and Nine Inch Nails mainstays) Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Also released on 15 September is The Vietnam War: The Soundtrack, which includes many of the iconic songs representing the era, including 38 tracks on 2CD chosen from the 120 tunes featured in the film. The soundtrack will include: The Beatles (“LET IT BE”) , The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Buffalo Springfield, Simon & Garfunkel, The Byrds, Otis Redding, The Animals, Barry McGuire, The Staple Singers, Cream and many more.

It was on their first ever world tour in 1964 that the Beatles were catapulted from England’s national sweethearts to global superstars. Stories of fans fainting and allegedly wetting themselves were common. Police cordons couldn’t control the throbbing crowds awaiting the Fab Four at each venue, and the band was successfully cracking the notoriously difficult American music scene.

“This,” Brian Sommerville, the Beatles’ press officer, grumbled during one particularly hectic New York press conference, “has gotten entirely out of control.”

Sommerville may have been witness to the madness but it was photographer Harry Benson who was right in the thick of it.

At the time of the Beatles tour Benson was a fairly unknown photographer. The tour job came about when, as he was en route to an assignment in Africa, Benson was reassigned to Paris, where he was to capture what Beatlemania looked like in France.

Benson would spend nearly two years on and off with the band, being too close to them, however, wasn’t on his agenda.

“They weren’t keen at first,” writes photographer Harry Benson of when he put the idea for this photo to the Beatles. “John said it would make them look childish, then he hit Paul in the back of the head with the pillow and it went from there.” “They were friendly, and I got on with all of them. “George and I even shared a room a few times. He liked the ladies that’s for sure!” he recalls in his book “The Beatles: On the Road 1964-1966,” which has now been rereleased by Taschen. “But I wouldn’t say I was close to them, nor did I want to be.”

When it comes to photography and your subjects, he writes, there is a fine line and he was not willing to cross it.

“My philosophy has always been photograph what you see, your photograph should inform, and then get the hell out.”

Benson would go on to photograph the likes of Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and the Queen. He has also photographed every American president since Eisenhower, and was was with Robert. F Kennedy when we was assassinated in 1968.

The Beatles had an incredibly loyal fan base. Stories of girls fainting at the mere sight of the band walking on stage were common, and the four would often get accosted no matter where they were in the world.
In 1966 Benson was sent to take photos of the fallout from John Lennon’s infamous “We’re bigger than Jesus Christ” comments in Chicago. According to Benson: “Lennon was broken, he was crying, and shattered, and the rest of the group wasn’t giving him much sympathy.”
Benson recalls how the band had become more “cynical, and were sick of touring. John turned to me and said: ‘We aren’t going to do this for much longer.’ Paul added: ‘Of course it’s going to stop, we’d look stupid jumping around on stage at 40.'”
Months later the band would play their final scheduled show. Benson writes that the two years he spent with the band were like none he had ever experienced, or would experience again.
“With most of my pictures I think I could have done better, but this was the perfect moment, it won’t happen again. I got it.”“The Beatles: On the Road 1964-1966” by Harry Benson, published by Taschen… H E R E.

Universal Music EnterprisesClassic tunes by Ringo Starr, Blind Faith and Paul Simon are included on a very special soundtrack collection featuring songs heard on the Emmy-nominated NBC drama series, This Is Us.

The 20-track collection, titled This Is Us (Music from the Series), will be released September 15 and will be available on CD and as a digital download.

Included on the album are Starr’s “Photograph,” Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home,” and Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al,” as well as tunes by Badfinger, Stevie Wonder, founding Byrds member Gene Clark, Cat Stevens, and influential English folk singer Nick Drake. The record also includes a cover of the Little Feat gem “Willin’” sung by This Is Us cast member Mandy Moore. The show follows the fictional Pearson family through the years, alternating between the story of young parents Jack and Rebecca Pearson in the 1980s and ’90s, and their three adults kids — Kevin, Kate and Randall — in the present day.The first season of This Is Us will be released on DVD on September 12, while the second season will premiere on September 26.

Here’s the full track list of the This Is Us (Music from the Series) album: